The RIBA House of the Year is a contemporary reimagining of the classic English country house

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has awarded Caring Wood by James Macdonald-Wright and Niall Maxwell as the RIBA House of the Year 2017.

This prestigious award is presented annually to the best new house or house extension designed by an architect in the UK.

The home, comprised of four towers with interlinking roofs, is inspired by the traditional red-roofed oast houses of Kent. These are traditional agricultural buildings for drying hops, although most have now been converted into homes. It is very much a contemporary reimagining of the traditional country house – the use of peg clay tiles being a nod to the classic country aesthetic.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Through creating the home, the architects helped to revive local building crafts through sourcing local handmade peg clay tiles, quarried ragstone and coppiced chestnut cladding.

Architect James Macdonald-Wright said: 'Sustainability in architectural practice is expected, but I believe regionalism, craft and the interpretation of the vernacular are also important. I'm delighted that, in Caring Wood, they are being recognised. This project proves that, by joining together, small practices can do big things.'

Most Popular

RIBA House of the Year 2017 jury chair, Deborah Saunt, said: 'Beyond the impression of sublime craftsmanship and spatial grandeur this house offers, Caring Wood leads us to fundamentally question how we might live together in the future. At a time when we are increasingly atomised, individually preoccupied and lost in personalised digital worlds, designing homes where families come together – in their many permutations – is an increasingly important aim.'

'This is a brave project offering a new prototype. In deploying homes that cater for extended families across urban, suburban and rural sites, this may offer solutions not only to the country's housing crisis - where families might live together longer- but also by providing care solutions for young and old alike, freeing people from punishing costs throughout their lifetimes.

'This intimate house delights in the way it beautifully manipulates space and avoids grandiosity. Unobtrusive within its landscape, it builds on the pattern of settlement centuries old. This is a house for all ages.'